High Moon Ch. 55:

Path to Winter part 3; the Hunt

Volcanic ash spewed forth from the top of the volcano home of a clan of dragons. This was how dragons lived before the formation of the Dragon Empire; a tradition that dated further back than any other, making homes out of semi-dormant volcanos or the sides of mountains. Though this tradition still stoodands to this very day, most clans had long since gathered in the civilized, or as civilized as one could call it, empire under the reign of its Leviathan ruler; one of the few ‘everlasting’ dragons left in the world.

At the very peak of the volcano, the younger males would constantly challenge each other for superiority over one another. Elder drakes would line the outer ring of the volcano, keeping watch over the younger drakes to make sure they weren’t doing something that would bring shame onto the clan. They hunted for gems, battled each other for power, and flexed their muscles, all for one cause.

To attract a mate.

Conversely, the dragonesses would stay on the inside of the volcano, bathing in its overpowering heat. Here, in the safety of the caves, it was far less violent, but there were still hostilities to deal with. Even though dragonesses stayed within the caves to keep themselves safe from the clan’s violent drakes above them, they would also compete for a suitable mates, even going so far to share the same drake with a few other dragonesses. Often, the only thing many of the dragoness would agree upon is the safety of all the clan’s eggs above all else.

This was common. What wasn’t common was a dragoness refusing a male’s advances. That was Cyclone’s mistake. She had the unlucky fate of being forced to be paired with her old clan’s King drake. Her family had been all but strong-armed into giving her to the King drake. However, Cyclone didn’t enjoy how the drake treated her or the other dragonesses. The one thing that made it all bearable was that she was considered too young by the clan’s traditions for him to mate with her for some time yet. Still, being the youngest of the drake’s living hoard, Cyclone was treated horribly by the other dragonesses.

She couldn’t take it, and one day, she ran. In the middle of the night, Cyclone fled from the mountaintop to get away from the King drake and new ‘family’ that didn’t care for her. By this time, she already had a few bruises on her arms where the drake had gripped her so hard her scales had almost given out.

Cyclone needed to get away, there was no way she was going to live much longer like this. However, as she made her escape, the eldest of the dragonesses, a Queen dragoness, heard Cyclone’s attempt to escape and gathered her sister dragonesses to give chase without their drake’s knowledge. They chased Cyclone all the way down the mountain and into the forest of White Tail. If they wanted to, they could’ve easily captured Cyclone by now.

Instead, their plan wasn’t to bring Cyclone back to their drake, but to scare her away from him and the clan. They wanted her gone. But that didn’t stop them from toying with Cyclone. Using fire to scare her, earth and wind to trip her up, they even blocked her path with walls of thick ivy.

Cyclone was mercilessly hunted, or rather toyed with, by the fury of dragonesses. Lacking any real experience with her magic, fighting back was out of the question. Even if it had been just one of the dragonesses chasing her, Cyclone wouldn’t have stood a thread of a chance against them. It wasn’t long before the older dragonesses had already torn all her clothing from her, shaming the fleeing dragoness. By the time she was out of sight of the volcano, her legs and lungs were pushed far beyond their limits, and it showed when she tripped again at the edge of a large waterfall.

Looking down, it had to have been a hundred foot drop to the speck of water that was the bottom. Cyclone turned away from the edge, looking for a better way down. However, she was only able to take three steps before the black and luminescent teal Queen dragoness landed on the ground in front of Cyclone, with the other dragonesses suddenly appearing right after.

Cyclone fell back from the Queen Dragoness, quickly backing away from her in fear as the older dragon approached on all fours. “What’s the matter, little one?” she questioned, snaking behind Cyclone, and brushing one of her wings around the trembling Cyclone. “You act like you saw one of your ancestors.”

The other dragonesses laughed together while the Queen was moving to the front of Cyclone, keeping her body close to the frightened dragoness. “Aw, can’t speak?” she mocked again, moving away from Cyclone, and flicking the tip of her tail on Cyclone’s nose. After laughing at the frightened dragoness falling down, the Queen got up to her feet, standing taller than any of the others. “Why did you run, little Salamander? Did you really believe that you can live out there? All. By. Yourself? This must be a joke.”

“I say let her do it, be a thorn out of our scales,” one of the other dragonesses said, getting the others to laugh. Their laughter was cut deathly short when the Queen whipped her head back towards her, a blast of pitch-black smoke coming out of her nose. This caused the offending dragoness to back away while trying to make herself as small as she could. “Please forgive me, Sister Azurra.”

Soon a softer expression adorned Azurra’s face, no longer showing fake joy, but nor could it be called a real snarl. She turned back to Cyclone, morbidly smiling at the look of fear in her eyes. “Now as I was saying, you won’t make it out there on your own.”

“Th-then come with me,” Cyclone stuttered, heavily panting with fear at what Azurra could say or do to her. “Y-you can't want to say with him. H-he doesn't love any of us. We d-don’t mean anything to h-him. Please, Sister Azurra!”

For a short moment, Azurra didn’t say or do anything but look down towards the small dragoness. She closed her eyes before she began laughing gently. “Oh is that so, little…sister,” she said, almost forcefully as she slowly walked over to Cyclone with a gentle, yet still forced, smile on her face. Azurra giggled when Cyclone backed away from her, but didn’t let it faze her.

“Come now, little Sister Cyclone. We’re sorry for chasing you around like that, but if that’s how you really feel,” Azurra trailed off, taking Cyclone’s shoulders, turning her to the cliff's edge. “Here, I’ll fly you down the cliff and we’ll just tell our drake that you ran off during the night. How’s that sound?”

Cyclone foolishly bought into what Azurra was saying. Despite the voice in her head screaming at her, desperately saying that Azurra was going to betray her, she didn’t listen. “R-really? Y-you’ll help me?” Cyclone asked desperately as she somewhat allowed Azurra to push her closer to the edge, shaking a little when she saw a few rocks fall free from the cliffside. “Wh-what if I fall, Sister Azurra?”

“Don’t worry little one, I won’t let you fall,” Azurra said, flashing a smile when Cyclone looked back up towards her. “Now stand up straight, and don’t look back or down. Okay?” Cyclone looked worried for a moment but did slowly turn her head around to overlook much of White Tail. The smile on Azurra’s face grew into a twisted sneer as Cyclone did what she was told.

She took her left hand off of Cyclone’s left shoulder, raising it up as she gathered her wind-magic to cause a small vortex to start swirling around it before reshaping the wind to her talons. “Close your eyes, and take in a deep breath.”

“Okay, thank you Sister Azurra,” Cyclone said before she inhaled the cooling late night air, waiting to be taken away from the cliff.

However, Azurra had one last thing to say to the unsuspecting dragoness. “Oh and little one?”

“Yes, sister?”

“I never was your sister.” Right as Cyclone realized what Azurra was saying, it was already too late as the Queen Dragoness took a wide swipe across Cyclone’s bare back. Cyclone’s eyes widened from the sudden stinging pain of her scales being cut through. But she couldn’t make a single sound before she fell forward to her certain death.

Cyclone held onto Spike’s arms around her midsection as she was left a sobbing mess after she had finished her story, needing something strong to hold onto. Meanwhile, both Veil and Spike had mixed looks of shock and anger at what had happened to their mate. Spike looked over at Veil, who spared one tear-stricken look for him before lunging forward and wrapping her arms around Cyclone.

Veil was almost in as bad a shape as Cyclone. With her face buried against Cyclone’s neck, in between sobs, she seemed to be repeating herself, “I love you, you’re my sister, I love you, you’re my sister…” Cyclone herself had her arms around Veil now, nodding repeatedly. Both sobbing, Cyclone had one hand in the hound’s hair while the other ran up and down her back. As the two comforted each other, Spike touched one of Veil’s arms, and suddenly the hound was grasping his arm back nearly as hard as she was holding onto Cyclone.

Spike began placing soft kisses on the side of Cyclone’s neck while rubbing his free hand over her blue underbelly scales. He wished that he could do more but right now it seemed to be doing its job with helping Cyclone calm down a bit more to where she could speak.

“Veil...Veilstone please look at me,” Cyclone softly sniffled before she gently pushed Veil off of her, before reaching up to cup the hound’s cheeks. A small, sad smile spread on Cyclone’s face, only drawing out more tears from Veil. “Veily, stop crying. It’s in the past, and frankly, I’m happy that it happened.”

“B-but Cyclone,” Veil started, moving Cyclone’s hands off her cheeks, and squeezing the dragoness’ hands in hers. “I-it isn’t fair. They shouldn’t be able to get away with that… Drake!” Veil shot a pleading look at Spike. “Tell Cyclone that-”

“Veil, stop.” Veil reeled back from the deep and stern voice from Spike, oddly being turned on by it. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. And I know that Cyclone doesn’t want us to go hunt them down, so don’t even say that.”

Veil averted her eyes away from her two mates, cursing to herself under her breath as new tears began to form. Six years and Cyclone had never told Veil any of this. It wasn’t right. None of what Cyclone had to go through was right. And she couldn’t let those dragonesses get away with it.

Spike sighed, wanting the same thing that Veil was thinking to herself. He didn’t care if it would be justice, he burned for vengeance at the thought of someone hurting Cyclone. However, after crying through most of her story, he knew that Cyclone wouldn’t want to ever relive or look back at her past again.

“Veil…” Cyclone reached out for Veil’s cheeks again, wiping away the hound’s tears with her thumb. She then brought Veil’s lips closer to seal them in a quick passionate kiss, surprising both of her mates.

Because the warmth from Cyclone was so gentle, Veilstone soon gave into it, pushing back before they parted with a soft sigh. “If I hadn’t ran, I would’ve never met you or Spike. I love the both of you. I’ve never regretted a single moment of it. So don’t cry, okay?”

Veil meekly nodded her head as she stared deeply into Cyclone’s pink eyes. “O-okay Cyclone, it’s still messed up though,” she said, cracking a small smile from Cyclone’s giggle while Spike resumed the slow kisses on Cyclone’s neck.

Bringing her mind back to what it was on before, again giggling, “Now that that’s off my chest,” Cyclone took Spike’s hands in hers and move them up to her chest, letting out a happy sigh as Spike squeezed her breasts, “I still want you to make me a real dragoness Spikey~” Cyclone turned her body around slightly to take Spike’s lips in a kiss as she moved an arm around his neck.

Spike happily returned the favor as he wanted to do anything in his power to make Cyclone forget her past tragedies. Their eyes fluttered shut before Cyclone’s lips parted to allow Spike’s forked tongue to snake inside her mouth. Light smacking sounds came from the two, tongues swirling around each other.

Suddenly, Cyclone kicked off the bed to push Spike down on his back, quickly becoming more forceful. Her kiss with Spike deepened, breathing heavily through her nose as she pressed her large chest, that she swore had grown since she got to High Moon, against Spike.

She moved her hands down Spike’s body, placing them on top of his lower abs. Spike wrapped his arms around Cyclone’s body to pull her closer. A blush came to his cheeks at the feeling of Cyclone’s soft mounds resting on top of his bare chest, causing his member below to start stiffening.

He met her eyes, and a lusty smile found its way to his face. “I love you, Cy.” Cyclone’s blush deepened, and her only response was to recapture Spike’s lips in another deep kiss.

Veil saw the bulge growing in Spike’s pants, smirking when an idea crept into her head. “Hey, hey you two, I’m still here too you know,” she said as she crawled in between Spike’s legs to reach underneath Cyclone’s arms, taking hold of her plentiful breasts.

A loud gasp forced Cyclone to break the kiss before she was pulled back to sit up in Spike’s lap. “Aah...Veil b-be gentle,” Cyclone whined as Veil continued to grope her breasts with her sharp claws flicking over her hardened nipples. Spike just placed his hands on Cyclone’s wide hips, looking up at the two with a sly smirk on his face. He laid back to watch Veil toy with Cyclone’s breasts, the hound’s plan working as the bulge in Spike’s pants began to grow at a faster pace.

Cyclone threw her head back, giving Veil further access to start taking bites and kisses of her own on Cyclone’s neck. When the dragoness felt Spike’s shaft growing rapidly underneath her, Cyclone’s hips started to move on their own, only showing more of Cyclone’s desires.

“S-Spike...I need you,” Cyclone whined as she continued to desperately grind her hips against the denim jeans, her flower leaking in response to her needs. Veil opened one eye to look down at Spike, catching his small nod.

With a wide grin on her face, Veil moved her hands from Cyclone’s breasts to the undersides of her thighs, lifting her off Spike’s lap and spreading her open more. Cyclone’s cheeks took on a bright red hue from having her flower completely exposed to Spike.

“I wonder how this ‘nectar’ tastes,” Spike chuckled as his eyes were glued on Cyclone’s glistening blue scales at her nether regions. Much of Cyclone’s inner thighs were soaked with the clear juices, causing Spike to catch a heated whiff of Cyclone’s access. Spike ran a thumb along the inner part of her thigh, brushing over her folds and dipping in for a second. Cyclone tried to muffle a moan from Spike’s intrusion against Veil’s neck, which oddly brought out a very bright blush from the hound, and made her shiver.

Bringing his thumb up to his lips, Spike stuck it in his mouth and sucked Cyclone’s juices off. Just like he thought, she tasted like the purest of sapphires. The taste was only magnified, given its source. “You taste perfect, my lovely sapphire,” Spike said, hoping that his mates wouldn’t find the line too cheesy.

Veil merely chuckled while Cyclone thought her head would explode from blushing so hard. “Then you better not keep her waiting, Spike,” Veil said before dragging her tongue across Cyclone’s neck, getting the dragoness to shudder. Spike chuckled as he reached for the button of his jeans, undoing it slowly before he got around to his zipper. Once he pulled off his pants, Spike’s member sprang forth, lightly smacking his lower stomach with a clean glob of arousal finding its way up to Cyclone’s stomach.

When she saw Spike’s shaft out in the open for the first time, Veil’s legs gave out as her own flower heavily clenched from just looking at it. She fell back into a sitting position, dragging Cyclone with her. The massive size wasn’t the only thing that got her attention. Thick ridges lined the underside of Spike’s shaft, leading to a pair of heavy-looking balls. The sides also had smooth green barbs, going up from the base to the flaring head, where another glob of his pre-cum was already beginning to leak down the underside.

Spike blushed and sheepishly laughed at the two’s reactions to see his girth for the first time. He wasn’t the kind to boast or anything, but Spike took Veil and Cyclone’s wide-eyed stares as a compliment.

“Girls you’re um...drooling a bit,” Spike laughed, and before his mates knew what they were doing, they wiped at the corners of their mouths.

Another laugh left Spike’s lips when he saw Veil mouth, “It’s so big.” under her breath while Cyclone simply smiled before moving to straddle Spike’s raging shaft. The two of them moaned when she sat down on the ridged underside, forcing her flower to split open.

Yet Spike was able to retain control of himself, taking hold of Cyclone’s hips to start moving her along the underside of his shaft. Cyclone moaned from the feeling of the thick shaft and its deep ridges pushing apart her slit even more. To keep from falling, Cyclone placed her hands on Spike’s shoulders.

This allowed Spike to crane his head up to Cyclone’s breasts, his tongue already slithering out to move over Cyclone’s blue areolas and nipples. Getting a soft sigh as a response prompted him to go further. Spike opened his mouth to begin gently suckling on Cyclone’s breasts.

“Aah Spikey~” Cyclone moaned before she bit down on her quivering bottom lip. Her hips soon started to pick up the pace, feeling Spike’s shaft heavily throb beneath her. “I-in, I want it in Spike.”

Spike pulled off of Cyclone’s nipple with a nod of his head, moving his hands to the underside of Cyclone’s thighs to lift her up. A small whine came out of Cyclone from being lifted off of Spike, but that quickly turned into a gasp when the flaring head of Spike’s shaft pushed against her walls. “B-be gentle Spike,” Cyclone said, remembering what Blaze had said about how her first time was going to feel, and the pain that came with it.

“He’d better,” Veil hissed as she was lightly tugging at her own nipples while Cyclone lubricated Spike’s shaft with her juices. Moving behind Cyclone, Veil got ready to help her sister ease her way down the monster that was Spike’s shaft. “You got it, Spike?”

Spike chuckled at Veil, nodding his head. “Yeah, I’ll try to make it as easy as I can. Whenever you’re ready Cyclone,” Spike said to the white dragoness, who was clenching her hands on his shoulders while trembling a little.

“I’m ready.” With a slow breath Cyclone began lowering herself down onto Spike’s girth, having a bit of trouble getting the head to squeeze through her tight walls. Spike gave a small buck of his hips, forcing his head to push into Cyclone, causing her to let out a loud squeal of pain before she calmed down with a small quivering breath.

Once she had regained control of herself, Cyclone resumed moving down the rest of Spike’s shaft, whimpering every inch or so. “S-so thick...I don’t th-think I can.” Veil quickly moved her hands around Cyclone’s body to rub her lower belly, surprised that she didn’t feel a small bump of Spike’s shaft.

“Yes you can, Cy,” Veil said before placing kisses up Cyclone’s neck and cheek to lick away the tear from her eye. Taking another breath, Cyclone nodded her head towards Spike for him to take control and start slowly pulling her down. A few moments later, Spike felt his tip push against a wall of resistance, blushing when he realized what it was.

“Cyclone are you su-”

“Yes Spike, I am,” Cyclone said with a small smile, her pink eyes half-lidded as she cupped Spike’s face with her right hand. “I-I want to give m-myself to you, so please do it.”

Spike gripped his hands tighter around Cyclone’s waist as he got ready to take away the last bit of her innocence. As he pulled her down, the crown of his shaft prodded at the seal, causing Cyclone to turn her head up as she cried out from the discomfort.

Hearing her cries, Spike quickly started to lift Cyclone off but was stopped by Cyclone clenching down. “Cyclone I don’t-” Spike was cut off by Cyclone lividly shaking her head with tears at the corners of her eyes. Gritting his teeth, Spike resumed prodding at the seal, doing his best to ignore Cyclone’s cries.

Suddenly, Spike managed to push past Cyclone’s hymen, causing her to fall forward onto Spike’s chest. Spike didn’t allow Cyclone to go any further than that as he held onto her waist to keep her from taking the rest of his member - which had quickly became coated in small streams of Cyclone’s blood while her body trembled in pain.

“Cy, are you alright?” Veil asked, rubbing her back gently and watching Cyclone shiver while Spike heavily panted.

A few quivering moments passed with no answer from Cyclone, as she was still trying to get used to the feeling of being full. Yet she still felt empty, making her want more of Spike’s shaft as fast as possible, for as long as possible.

Another moment gave way with Cyclone slowly easing herself off of Spike’s built chest. “Y-yeah...I’m f-fine.” Bringing her hands from Spike’s shoulders, Cyclone winced with one of her eyes closed, still getting used to the feeling of his barbed and ridged shaft inside her. “It’s a-a lot thicker th-than it looks,” Cyclone softly joked, laughing as she tried to take in more deep breaths to ready herself for what was to come. “I’m re-ready, Spike.”

“You’d better go easy on her, Drake.” Spike merely laughed off Veil as she got behind Cyclone again, cupping the dragoness’ breasts with her claws, and biting down on her neck softly. After taking a moment to stare at Cyclone’s breasts being pushed and pulled away from each other, Spike began to slowly lift Cyclone up off of his shaft before letting her back down.

The two winced at the same time from Cyclone’s walls clamping down around Spike’s throbbing member. Spike kept the pace slow for Cyclone to get used to his girth, pulling her up until he felt Cyclone’s walls clench around him.

Cyclone rode the pain out as she started to feel it slowly fading away, turning into a spine-tingling pleasure she hadn’t ever felt before. “F-faster Spike,” Cyclone breathed out as her tail wrapped itself around Veil’s exposed midsection.

Spike did what Cyclone asked, working through her tight and periodically clenching walls to build a faster pace. Heat rose in the drake’s chest, causing his grip on Cyclone’s wide waist to tighten while he started to breathe out small plums of light-gray smoke. He grit his teeth again as Cyclone’s walls continued to constrict around his throbbing member, causing a pressure to start building in his loins, and oddly his chest.

This same pressure was already rapidly building inside of Cyclone as well, inducing her to coil more of her tail around Veil’s body. The hound neither cared nor paid any attention to it, though. All her focus was on Cyclone’s breasts, and giving the dragoness as much pleasure as she could.

The two hefty mounds slipped out of her hands as she continued to rub her palms over them. Veil had noticed that Cyclone enjoyed having her nipples played with, so she began tugging at them with her claws.

Cyclone’s moans reverberated inside the bedroom, causing Veil’s ears to twitch slightly while Spike began quickening his pace. “Here Spike, put that mouth of yours to some real use,” Veil mocked as she pushed Cyclone’s breasts together in his face, pressing Cyclone’s nipples together to make them look more inviting to him.

Spike didn’t hesitate a moment before he opened his mouth to latch onto Cyclone’s nipples. Cyclone cried out in surprise as she wrapped her arms around Spike’s neck, burying his head in her soft mounds while she continued to take more and more of his shaft.

“Aah...more,” Cyclone moaned as Veil started to bite the side of her neck harder and Spike lifted her up and down faster. The rushes of pleasures soon caused Cyclone’s tongue to loll out of her mouth, unconsciously breathing out hot blue and white flames.

The pressure building was so great inside of her that her vaginal walls began clenching down around Spike’s smooth barbs, milking out a few hot beads of pre-cum from the drake. However, Cyclone wanted more.

Cyclone mustered up what strength she could in her legs to suddenly quicken the pace of Spike’s shaft moving inside her, causing Spike to grunt around her nipples. “M-more!” Cyclone clamped down around all of Spike’s shaft, body spasming uncontrollably as she reached her first-ever peak. Her tail tightened around Veilstone, and for a second the hound thought that Cyclone might break something in her.

Cyclone’s sudden climax threw Spike over the edge as well. His two heavy balls pulled up to his body as he pulled Cyclone down to take all of his shaft, their hips meeting before he released a torrent of pent-up seed inside Cyclone’s quivering walls. As the hot seed filled her core, Cyclone let out a small burst of fire from her mouth, holding onto Spike’s neck tightly.

Spike let out a low groan as he continued to pulse within Cyclone, feeling like his ejaculation would never end. Spike rode out the rest of Cyclone’s climax with his hips bucking into her every so often. Eventually, the two dragons came down from their highs, with Spike removing himself from Cyclone’s nipples as her body slackened up and her tail uncoiled from around Veil’s body.

“Mm...Spikey~” Cyclone rested her head in the crook of Spike’s neck as the excess of Spike’s cum streamed out of her twitching walls, not having the strength enough to keep all of Spike’s seed from freely flowing out. She moved her hands to Spike’s broad shoulders, both of them panting heavily.

Soon, Cyclone’s eyes closed with a blissful smile on her face as she fell asleep against Spike’s chest. After wrapping his arms around her lower back, Spike chuckled when the sound of Cyclone’s soft snores reached his ears.

“Well, she’s out cold,” Veil softly whispered, moving towards them to rub the back of Cyclone’s smooth, round-tipped head spines. The two shared a laugh when Cyclone started to softly murmur in her sleep, nuzzling into Spike’s chest. “I’m gonna head down to the kitchen to grab some snacks for us.”

Spike furrowed his eyebrows. “Kitchen? When did that happen?” he asked, not knowing that the three newcomers had fixed up an area in the mansion to store food and other cooking items while he had been asleep for a week and a half.

“When you were knocked out,” Veil answered before she started dressing herself to head further into the mansion. “But don’t worry about it. ‘Cus tomorrow, you are coming hunting with us and Alpha to help. Got it, Spike?” She fixed him with an intent stare.

“Yeah, I was planning on it anyway Veil,” Spike said, starting to gently rub Cyclone’s back with his hand as she continued to softly snore in his ear. He barely even noticed the mass of scars.

Veil silently looked at Spike tenderly holding Cyclone, unable to avert her eyes away from the scars going down the entirety of Cyclone’s back. She heard Spike murmur something that sounded like, “My sweet, perfect sapphire.” She snorted and rolled her eyes before standing up. With a final glance at the scars on Cyclone’s back, Veil held her tongue, knowing that bringing it up would cause more problems than they needed right now.

However, as she opened the door, Spike stopped her, asking in a hushed voice, “Veil, if we ever, by some small unlucky chance, confront those dragonesses and that King Drake… What will you do?”

No response came as Veil stood at the door with her head lowered to the point her hair covered her eyes. She thought about it for a long moment. Veil wanted to say that she would try attacking the dragonesses out of vengeance. However, she knew there was nothing she could do up against dragons like that. And that angered her.

“Stop talking already, will ya Drake?” Veil left the room before Spike could respond, not sure if she could contain herself if she heard his reply. Just before she closed the door, Veil’s sensitive ears picked up on Spike muttering, ‘I’m sorry.’ But she forced herself to wave it off as her imagination.

Veil took a moment standing at the door to reflect on everything she had personally accomplished at High Moon. Training, climbing, digging, and even learning new tricks; she’d done so much these last few months. Out of the diamond dogs, only Wolf could consistently beat her in a fair fight. And yet, up against magic, dragon magic, all of that was nothing.

Shaking these thoughts out of her head, Veil wiped away the lone frustrated tear that had gathered in the corner of an eye. She started venturing off to the left wing of the mansion where the kitchen had been finished a few days ago, and was already nearly filled in for its use.

When she reached the door to the lounging area, Veil pushed it open, not surprised to find Kiri laying out in front of the roaring firepit, Spirit sitting next to the demon fox, and Fang sitting on the couch with Night Blade sleeping in his arms. Veil stepped into the room, getting both Fang and Kiri’s attentions. Spirit, however, had been oddly distant the last few days, and Veil had a strong feeling as to why. “Hey guys, how ya’ll holding up?” Veil asked in a friendly tone to further distract her mind from Spike’s question.

“Oh hey Veil, just coming after spending some time with Spike?” Fang joked, wagging his eyebrows suggestively as he continued to rock his bat-pony mare in her sleep.

“Oh go chew on a bone, Fang,” Veil quipped back with a small laugh herself while her cheeks flushed red, closing the door.

Fang laughed, answering back, “Smells to me like you already did.” His laughter resumed when he caught Veil’s blush grow in intensity as she let out a frustrated growl at him. Her flusterdness was more evident by her tail rising up on its own, and from the scent she was giving off. “But seriously, it’s good to know that the twins are up now.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Veil sighed, her mind going back to Spike’s question a few moments ago. She let out another sigh to fight off those thoughts before she walked over to the sofa that was one of the many things they’d bought with Quill’s prize money from the flight competition. Veil sat down on an empty cushion next to Fang while Spirit continued to sit directly in front of the fire.

“He isn’t doing any better is he?” Veil asked softly, getting Fang to sigh while Night stirred in her sleep.

Fang placed his a hand on Night’s head to slowly start stroking it, gently soothing her back to sleep. Once he was satisfied that the mare was fully asleep again, Fang turned towards Veil and shook his head. “No, this is his first winter seeing Lily like this. And I gotta say, it has me worried too...” Fang sighed as he continued to cuddle his mare in his arms, looking at his cubhood friend. “I have to say, seeing Spirit like this has me really worried. He’s usually the optimistic guy of the group.”

“The what?” Veil asked, not sure what Fang meant by the word he used to describe Spirit. “You mean that he’s the happy one right?”

“Something like that,” Fang sighed, “Spirit always has his eye on the prize, ready to go at something no matter the plan. But seeing him like this...I dunno, it worries me is all.”

Veil looked over towards Spirit, who hadn’t made a single indication that he had heard the conversation behind him, despite the fact that diamond dog ears were more sensitive during the winter. “But Alpha-Mother said that Lily would be fine once spring rolled around.”

“Spring is a long time away from now, you know,” Fang said, “But you’re right, Lily will be fine as long as she sleeps and saves her energy. It’s just hard seeing Spirit like this, though. Tried everything to snap him out of it, so far only Alpha has been able to do it.”

Veil turned her attention away from Spirit over towards Fang, seeing his disposition change greatly. This whole thing was reminding her of when she first found Cyclone, and how she’d felt after doing her best to treat Cyclone’s injuries. How helpless she was to do anything else for the dragoness during or after her recovery.

Initially, that was the first reason Veil allowed Cyclone to stay. She couldn’t just send her out all injured the way she was, and later, Veil felt like she had needed to be there for Cyclone. Like there was a connection between them.

“Eh, you just need to be there for him,” Veil said after a moment of reflection on the last six years of her life. “He’s your friend right? I’m sure he knows that you’re worried, he just might want some time to think things out.” Fang raised an eyebrow towards Veil, surprised that she was being more open with her thoughts than usual. “Just be there for him when he needs a shoulder to lean on. Because he’s gonna need it.”

Fang laughed as he closed his eyes, laying his head on the backrest of the couch with another sigh. “Thanks, and I will. He’s helped me more times than I can count.” Fang’s hold around Night tightened slightly as he thought about all the times Spirit was there for him. “That reminds me, have you told Spike yet?”

Veil’s body visibly flinched before she calmed herself down with a sigh as she moved her bangs out of her eyes. “If you’re talking about coming hunting with us, then yeah.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about Veil, and you know it,” Fang said firmly, while Veil’s eyes stayed looking down at the stone ground, her hands clenching together. “Veil you gotta tell him at some point, might as well get it over with.”

Veil was unresponsive for a moment as her hands continued to grip the other to the point where her claws almost unsheathed. However, she was able to calm herself with a small intake of breath. “Fang,” she breath out, “I’ll tell him when I’m ready. There’s still one more thing I need to see from Spike before I give myself to him.”

Fang started to laugh a bit for Spike’s sake. “You make that drake work, you know that? I mean, after all he’s done, beaten me and Spirit twice, even when we teamed up on him. Not to mention that incredible power of his. You still need to experience it first-hand, huh?”

“It doesn’t matter what’s he done until I’ve seen it with my own eyes, Fang,” Veil said, relaxing her posture just slightly as she closed her eyes. “I need to do this. I’m sure you can understand, right?”

“I shouldn’t, but I do,” Fang nodded his head, knowing that Veil was making sure she had chosen the right mate to spend her life with. “Here’s what you can do. When we’re out hunting, you can see for yourself if Spike can keep up. If he does, then you have to tell him.”

Veil cracked a smile, a little surprised. “That’s if he keeps up. Alpha isn’t the only one that wants to see how the twins hold up.” Veil stood up from her seat with a small huff, placing a hand on her hip. “Well I better go grab those snacks that I promised for those two. Speaking of which, I need to see if I can get Spike to head out and get some more. Ain’t we running out of stuff anyway?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know why,” Fang shrugged as he has only been eating when he went out hunting with the other dogs. He didn’t want to say that it was Cyclone, for there was someone that was bigger prime suspect. “Nightie, you wouldn’t know who’s been eating extra food here, would you?”

All Fang got back in response was a loud hiss from the mare as she turned her face into his fur chest, gripping at the tufts of thick pale-brown fur. Fang laughed at the mare, holding the back of her head while she moved other hand down to the back of her thigh. “Guess we have our answer.”

“Well that’s just great,” Veil huffed, knowing that there was little they could do about the bat-pony going for midnight snacks. “Whatever I guess, as long as we don’t run out of money it shouldn't be too much of a problem.” Veil sighed as she started to move towards the door on the left side that would lead down the hallway where she’d find the kitchen.

Yet before she could open the door, Fang stopped her. “Tomorrow is going to be interesting, isn’t it, Veil?” he asked in his native diamond dog tongue, despite knowing that Veil wasn’t entirely fluent in it.

But she could understand every word he spoke, simply replying, “Yeah.” She stepped through the door, mind strictly on what she had to do before she fully accepted Spike as her mate. “I really hope that he can do it.”